Michelle Bergadaà

The Role of Time in the Action of the Consumer

A phenomenological approach was used to study the temporal system of consumers, an important but neglected aspect of individual action and consumer behavior. Two patterns of temporal attitude with profoundly different implications for consumer behavior were identified: some individuals appear to live and act as if they are more subject to deterministic functioning in relation to their temporal orientation, while other appear subject to voluntaristic functioning. Different temporal orientations may induce different sorts of motivation, different plans, the consumption of different types of products, and different specific attitudes that elicit a certain organizational process in relation to products. Copyright 1990 by the University of Chicago.

Enduring Involvement with Shopping

Abstract The concept of involvement with respect to shopping was explored. A test to distinguish enduring versus situational involvement with shopping was developed and administered to a representative sample of 712 French adults. Four dimensions of involvement were defined: leisure, economic, social, and apathetic. Two sets of variables, sociodemographics and locus of control, were tested as potential antecedent conditions to enduring involvement. The results confirmed that enduring involvement with shopping is a four-dimensional construct, although cluster analysis yielded four different patterns of involvement with shopping that were a combination of the aforementioned dimensions.

Children and business: pluralistic ethics of marketers

Purpose – Marketers have increased decision‐making responsibility when they work either directly or indirectly with children and adolescents; a vulnerable sector of the population. These young consumers are the target of much‐criticised practices. The objective of this paper is to lay the foundations of a code of ethics for the marketing industry.Design/methodology/approach – First, the stakes for marketers are outlined, in addition to an overview of the epistemological and historic foundations of the marketing discipline; materialism, pragmatic utilitarianism and liberalist individialism.Findings – Finds that each of these concepts is subject to allegations of suspicious and outright immoral marketing practices.Originality/value – The paper gives food for thought on morality, professional deontology, ethics and individual decision‐making responsibility. This code of ethics is designed to serve as a pragmatic paradigm and it is destined for marketers who are both decision‐makers and social stakeholders.

Strategic Decisions and Implementation: Prodin(TM), a Prospective Dialectic Interpersonal Method

Abstract The swift pace of change in the environmental framework of the European firm highlights the importance of a very pragmatic and economic question: How can a firm ensure that it is always in harmony with its environment, given changes in technology, and national and international competition? A second major topic is the consideration of the firm in its social significance, specific culture, and organization: How can a decision concerning the firm be implemented efficiently, that is, accepted by those inside the firm? This study presents a specific method of investigation, created with major European firms in mind, to answer their need for organizational change. The Prospective Dialectic and Interpersonal Network (Prodin) method is designed to formally examine the questions above. This method is specifically for firms which need to: (1) rigorously investigate the opportunities and constraints of their future environment; (2) formulate a specific and pragmatic set of strategic objectives; and (3) implement rapid, important changes in the organization through the personal involvement of change agents.

The Development of Mutual Trust in Cross-Cultural Business Negotiations

The purpose of this study is to provide insight into how mutual trust develops in cross-cultural industrial business negotiations. A theoretical framework is provided that identifies a set of constructs proposed to influence the development of mutual trust in business negotiations. This framework conceives the development of mutual trust as a social interaction process in which verbal, paraverbal and nonverbal behavior of each partner are interrelated. The results of an empirical study designed to validate the established framework are presented.

Craftsmen of Art, and Their Craft: The Experience of Authenticity and Its Materialization in the Places Where Craftspeople and Enlightened Clients Meet

This study was conducted at the request of a French city interested in promoting artistic craftspeople in order to attract enlightened clients. Using naturalistic enquiry, we conducted in-depth interviews with craftspeople and enlightened clients and performed two content analyses. The first, structuralist in nature, made it possible to define the “experience of authenticity” that craftspeople share with their customers. The second, phenomenological in nature, made it possible to understand how this experience is (or is not) cultivated in two traditional meeting places: workshops and public exhibitions. The article concludes by putting our definition of the experience of authenticity in context based on both the fundamental propositions put forward by Peirce and the principal propositions that currently define the field of marketing.

A Books Reading Pattern Based on Economic and Psycho-Sociological Factors

This article examines the relative influence of socio-economic variables versus attitudes as regards to consumer behavior towards book reading as a leisure activity. Previous studies on leisure consider the amount of discretionary time available to the individual as a decisive factor. This study is based on a field research conducted upon a French population sample. We isolate four fundamental dimensions of the reading activity that appear to act as necessary intermediate variables to predict consumer behavior towards this leisure activity. A threshold of involvement is identified, below which individuals appear to feel unconcerned by reading, should they have discretionary time available or not.